It’s no secret that the Emerald Triangle is one of the most stunningly immersive settings the West Coast has to offer. Only three hours north of San Francisco, its illustrious beauty and myriad of marvelous natural elements opens its doors once-a-year for the annual Northern Nights Music Festival (NNMF) nestled in the Redwoods on the banks of the South Fork Eel River. The music, wellness and cannabis experience like no other is back July 17-19th, 2020, and with it, a staggeringly remarkable phase one Nothern Nights 2020 lineup programmed across 5+ stages.
Northern Nights 2020 Lineup (Phase 1)
NNMF is returning for its eighth consecutive year, and with it, the most finely tuned lineup to date. The 2020 edition features an international roster of headliners that consists of Claude VonStroke, TroyBoi and CloZee. Claude VonStroke, creator of the renowned San-Francisco-born label Dirtybird Records, has been reshaping the house and techno landscape ever since.
London, England’s TroyBoi is bringing his stimulating style of world-influenced trap music to the main stage for what’s currently one of only four US shows — and the only one on the West Coast.
Finally, France’s CloZee has galvanized herself to the forefront of the world-bass genre, escalating to one of the most-watched woman electronic artists in the scene right now. She even played five sets at Burning Man in 2019, and just wrapped up a show at Costa Rica’s Envision.
Grammy-nominated British artist Elderbrook is also performing at the festival this year along with James Blake collaborator and fellow Grammy-nominee Khushi (Hindu for “happiness”).
Members of The Funk Hunters and The Soul Hop Committee are also on the lineup concealed in a new group deemed Lazy Syrup Orchestra. World-influenced Soohan is bringing his transformational-bass music to the grounds and Dirtybird all-star J. Worra is also slated to play at the site of Cook’s Valley Campground. Worra is a tech-house DJ and producer you should be paying attention to — she’s even debuting a main stage set at Ultra Music Festival this year.
Japan-raised, San Francisco-based Qrion is on the Northern Nights bill as well. She emerged as one of Billboard’s Top 10 Emerging Dance Artists (August 2019), and just wrapped up playing with Deadmau5 on his mau5trap tour.
SNBRN — a California all-star — is bringing his deep-house beats to shake the redwoods, and finally, LA producer David Starfire is cultivating his unique fusion of world music and electronica at NN20.
Other rising artists that made the bill this year are the Denver based Willbeaux and Motion Trap. The Bay Area native, Willbeaux, combines elements of house, trap, break beats and funk to create his own hypnotizing style of dance music.
It’s safe to say this is one of the most exciting, diverse and tastefully-curated lineups to hit the West Coast this year. The festival that calls California home is following its ethos of discovery while bringing a myriad of upcoming homegrown acts to the Emerald Triangle with an assortment of star-studded talent.
2019 was a historical year for Northern Nights, it having been the first compliant three-day, overnight and camping festival in the country to allow the recreational use and sale of cannabis on-site outside of the state fairgrounds at the Tree Lounge. Making the most of a permit that’s been years in the making, Northern Nights also incorporated cannabis into its wellness programming with participatory events like Stoned Yoga and CBD Self-Massage. All of this resulted in an unforgettable success which is only expected to evolve with 2020’s edition.
Not only was last year groundbreaking in regards to cannabis, Zhu was added to the lineup just one month before the festival and Big Wild brought a full band, both rare but welcomed surprises — a hint at more to come in future installments… It was also the first year Northern Nights sold out on day one of the festival. With all of the progression NNMF has seen, and presale tickets already sold out, the event is projected to sell out even sooner in 2020. Tier 1 tickets are now on sale here while supplies last.
Northern Nights 2020:
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube | Soundcloud
